High Hopes from Allah

Abu Hurairah (ra) has quotes a Prophetic saying " Hoping for good is also an act of worship of Allah "

[Tirmidhi and Hakim]

Explanation : Besides fear of Allah, expecting good from Him is an act of sublime merit. In a hadith-e-Qudsi our beloved Prophet (saw) has quoted the divine words , "I am what my bondsman thinks of Me , and when he remembers Me, I am there with him" (Bukhari and Muslim)

Many merits have been given in the Qur'an and Hadith for having high hopes from Allah. This implies that one must try to live according to His Divine commands and when he commits errors, he should expect Divine Mercy for it.

But if one is entirely unmindful of Divine commands, does not care to reform himself and is driven by worldly and carnal desires and yet expects Divine Pardon and Mercy, he has been castigated in Hadith.

The right way is to try to reform oneself and to balance Allah's fear and good hopes from Him. As it is related in another Hadith by Anas (ra) that , "Once our Prophet (saw) went to a young man who was on his death-bed and asked him , 'How do you feel? ' . The young man said ' I have much hope from Allah (Swt) but I also fear for my sins.' . The Holy Prophet (saw) said , ' The believer who has these two ideas simultaneously at such time, Allah fulfills his hopes and grants him security from fear'"

[Tirmidhi]